Others consider living beings as the result of a cause entirely different from those which act in inanimate bodies, and refer to this cause alone everything which takes place in these beings. These two methods appear to me, from the exclusive element in each, to be equally ill-founded. It cannot be denied that phenomena identical with those characteristic of inanimate bodies are found in organised beings, and we have, therefore, no scientific reason to attribute them to different causes. But organised beings have also their special phenomena radically distinct from, or even opposed to, the former. Is it possible to refer all of them to one, or to several, identical causes? I think not. For this reason, I admit with a great number of eminent men of every age and country, and, I believe, with the majority of those that respect modern science, that organised beings owe their distinctive characteristics to a _Special Cause_, to a _Special Force_, to _Life_, which in them is associated with the inorganic forces. For this reason I consider it legitimate to call them _Living Beings_. I shall often, however, return to this class of considerations, in order to make it quite clear in what sense I take these words, _Force_, and _Life_. III. The two Empires of Pallas are themselves sub-divided into Kingdoms, which are characterised by special facts and phenomena, becoming more and more complicated as we ascend the scale of nature. And, in the first place, I distinctly admit with de Candolle the existence of a _Sidereal Kingdom_. To any one who considers, as far as we are able, the little that we know of the universe, the celestial bodies, suns, planets, and comets or satellites only appear as molecules of the great All which fills indefinite Space. One general phenomenon which is unchangeable, however varied in its forms, is, as it were, the attribute of these bodies. All, whether gaseous or solid, obscure or luminous, hot or cold, move within curves of the same nature, obeying the laws discovered by Kepler. It is now well known that _fixed stars_ do not exist. In order to explain this _phenomenon_ philosophers have admitted the existence of a _force_ which they have called _Gravitation_, the effect of which is to precipitate the stars towards one another, as if they mutually attracted each other, whilst obeying the laws of Newton. Now it is well known that the great Englishman himself gave no opinion upon the mode of action of this force, and that he hesitated between the hypothesis of _Attraction_ and that of _Impulsion_. The first should prevail as being more in accordance with the immediate results of observation; but the second also has had serious partisans, among whom I will only mention M. de Tessan.